According to the power supply utility, Eskom, illegal connections pose a great risk, as they overload the system, which often causes equipment failure, and therefore interruption of supply.

“When Eskom electrifies the community, capacity study is done to look at the number of household to be electrified, so if additional customers illegally connect themselves to the same network it overloads the system and create multiple power failures and safety risk to the community at large,” said Modjadji Sebola of Eskom Limpopo Operating Unit.

She said too often innocent people lose their lives and the saddest part is that its most children who are electrocuted when they unwittingly touch carelessly laid cables left by those who steal electricity.

“The Eskom team was motivated by the fact that the objective of the clean-up was to primarily save lives, while simultaneously saving Eskom a lot of money.

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Illegal connections are not safe, as they are usually made by unqualified people who not only risk electrocuting themselves, but also expose other people to danger and the risk of injury and death if they make contact with such connections,” explained Tzaneen sector manager, Doris Selepe.

Selepe added that the clean-up would continue into other areas to ensure the safe use of electricity and to combat the illegal connections which might cause harm to the members of the community.

Customers are urged to be on the lookout for illegal connections and those who tamper with meters.

“These are criminal acts which rob communities of a stable electricity supply,” she said.

Should the community witness such acts, we urge them to send an anonymous SMS to crime line on 32211 to report them.

For any other electricity-related inquiries, the public should contact the Eskom Contact Centre on 086-003-7567.